Fear Itself
by NAAFP
Summary: Once again, Percy Jackson finds himself facing old enemies. But with his friends by his side, what does he have to fear? Well, the only thing to fear is fear itself. Note: This takes place between the two different series, but Percy does not bear the Curse of Achilles.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello to everyone reading this. First of all, let me thank you for reading this story. Warning: the first chapter might get a bit weird. However, I urge you to read on. Secondly, this is NOT a sequel to my previous story, Percy Jackson: Against the Ocean. I'm still throwing out ideas for that one. Thirdly, I will try to update this at least once every three days or so. **

**Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are all greatly appreciated (I don't care if you hate the story, but I would like it if you could tell me WHY). **

**Read, review, enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

I was falling. I don't know where I was or how I got there. I couldn't see anything around me; the darkness covered even my own body from my vision. There was no way to tell if I was falling for seconds or hours. Time became a blur as I continuously rushed towards the bottom of wherever I was going.

Someone once told me that all rational creatures fear the dark. I had never considered myself to truly be scared of it, but now I was. I guess it was because I had no way of knowing anything that was happening around me. For all I know, I could have been surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters, biding their time until they snatched me from my fall and decided to kill me.

I could feel the fear rising inside me, but there was nothing I could do to counter it. I felt inside the pocket of my jeans for my sword, Riptide. I pulled out it and let the Celestial bronze glow illuminate the darkness of my fall. The light spread out, searching for walls, but found nothing. I could only see further darkness. Still, it felt comforting to know that I had a sword in my hand and light showing me my path.

Suddenly, my eyes forced themselves shut. I felt my body smash against something much too solid for my liking. I swear I felt my bones break and heard the crunch as my head hit the bottom. I laid there for a minute, breathing heavily with my eyes closed. I had to be dead. There was no way that I could survive that fall.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. The darkness was no longer there. I was in a softly lit small cavern. I felt around for Riptide, but found nothing. It must have fallen out of my grip when I hit the ground. I stood up slowly and looked around. It was nowhere to be seen. I wasn't worried; it would return to my pocket soon enough. It always did.

As I looked around, I noticed a small tunnel in the back of the cavern. Cautiously, I walked towards it and entered into the tunnel. It was long enough so that I could not see the end, but I entered it, not knowing what awaited me at the end. The rock walls around me were an ominous shade of black. I walked on for about a minute until it emptied into a much larger room than the first one I was in.

I looked around at my surroundings. It was another cavern, but it looked man-made. The rock was polished almost until it shone. To my right, a faint glow appeared in the rock. I turned my head to see what it was.

Words, written in Ancient Greek, were carved into the rock. They were glowing brightly, but I could tell that they were fading quickly.

I rushed over to read them, nearly tripping on my way there. By the time I reached the words, I could only read the last two in the faint glow that they were providing. The words "fear itself" shone out into the emptiness of the cavern for a second until they disappeared as the rest of the words already had done.

I was left standing there in total darkness wondering what the words meant when I heard a loud crack directly behind me. I whirled around, searching for what had caused the noise.

The cavern lit up. The change in light blinded me momentarily, and I shielded my eyes with my hand until they adjusted themselves and I could see properly. When I took my hands down, standing before me was something that I had definitely not expected.

The Minotaur stood over me, breathing down on me as it glared at me with hate. Probably because I'd already killed it twice.

I sighed. Why didn't this thing stay dead? I'd killed it so recently, too. Can't I have good luck for one in my life and have a monster stay dead longer than a year or two?

"Hey Beef Boy," I said. "Back for round three?"

As I was talking, I casually reached into my pocket and felt around for Riptide. It wasn't there.

Riptide definitely should have reappeared in my pocket by now. Why wasn't it here? I guess I was just going to have to kill the Minotaur the old fashioned way.

I kept taunting him, trying to get him angry. "Hey, I have a question. Since we're underground, doesn't that technically make you Ground Beef?"

The Minotaur snorted slightly, sending steam out of its quivering nostrils. However, it didn't bellow or charge at me. Maybe it was finally learning some self restraint.

I tried one last time to get it to charge. "You look a little meaty there," I said, staring pointedly at its stomach. "Have considered a Vegan diet? You could just let me go right now and we can go out and get some fresh carrots."

Once again, the Minotaur didn't respond.

"I'll take that as a no," I muttered, right before I tried a classic tactic of mine: charge straight at the huge monster that could easily kill a demigod.

I ran toward him quickly, not wanting to give him time to lower his horns. If I could tackle him, then he would have no choice but to come after me. I knew from experience that it was easy to avoid him once he was charging.

I rushed towards the Minotaur. He looked surprised, but I guess that was to be expected. Right before I was about to hit him, I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

And ran into nothing. I kept on going as if I had hit nothing at all. My momentum carried me a few more yards before I stopped and turned around. There was nothing there.

Suddenly, the light in the cavern went away as quickly as it had come. I was plunged into darkness and stumbled back a few steps in surprise.

I heard a whisper in the darkness of the cave. The voice sounded like it was repeating the word "fear" over and over. Now I was seriously creeped out.

The voice grew louder and louder. I could hear it echoing off of the walls all around me. I put my hands over my ears, but the voice didn't even dim. I fell to my knees, and closed my eyes tight. The voice kept on growing louder until it was almost shouting. "FEAR. FEAR. FEAR." It was almost a chant. "FEAR. FEAR." "No," I murmured, too weak for my own ears to hear. "FEAR! FEAR!" "NO," I said, louder now.

The voice continued to shout. "FEAR!"

I yelled out, my own voice filled with power and authority. "ENOUGH!"

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily. I looked around me crazily, searching for the cavern that I had just been in. Nothing. It was just a dream.

I was sweating. Not surprising, really, considering what I'd gone through. I looked outside my cabin window. The sun was just beginning to rise. There was no point in going back to sleep, so I decided I might as well start the day off earlier.

I threw an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt on and went outside into the cool morning air for a run. I loved the weather at the end of summer. It was cool enough to be able to spend time outside, but not so cold that you had to wear too much. It felt great to be running in a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt.

After my jog, I sat down by the creek to rest for a minute. I enjoyed just resting there peacefully with my eyes closed and allowing the sound of the water flowing to wash over me. Bliss.

I should have known that it wouldn't last.

Barely a minute later, I heard Annabeth's voice off to my right.

"I thought I would find you here. Come on, Percy, we need your help."

I opened my eyes and looked up at her smiling at me. "Can't we stay here a while? It's nice. Have a seat."

Still smiling, Annabeth shook her head. "Nope. As much as I would like to, we have to work to do. And I think it's your fault."

I sighed, but stood up. "How is it my fault?"

"You'll see. Come on."

She grabbed my hand and we walked back to the Big House together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry it's been longer than I thought for the update, I've had a lot to do recently. But here it is.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far, it means a lot to me. **

**As always, read, review, and enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

When we got to the Big House, the first thing that I noticed was Clarisse standing on the steps, probably waiting for me. She was scowling at me, but that was nothing new.

"Good morning, sunshine," I said as we passed her.

She ignored me and followed us into the Big House where Chiron was waiting for us. He also looked annoyed with me.

"Percy, why must you always do these kinds of things to us?" he asked. I stood there racking my brains, trying to figure what he could be talking about.

I sunk a canoe last week, but there was no way that anyone could know about that. And even if they did, I could probably go underwater and get it out in a couple minutes.

I had no idea what Chiron was talking about, so I just asked him.

"Um, I don't know. Now what exactly did I do?"

He looked at me sternly, and I had a sudden déjà vu feeling. That was the exact look he so often gave me when he used to be my teacher. Usually, it made me want to fess up immediately, but this time I actually had no idea what to tell him.

"There is a group of mortals in Central Park who are terrified right now, and you won't tell me what you've done to cause it?" Chiron asked.

"Nothing!" I said defensively. "I've been here the entire time. Besides, why would I want to scare a group of mortals?"

Chiron waved his hand as if he was dismissing my question. "You wouldn't. But it should be obvious why we still think it's your fault." He stared at me, waiting for me to figure it out.

I guess Annabeth thought that it might take a while, because she decided to intervene. "Percy, monsters ignore mortals, right?" she asked.

"Right," I said. "So what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, if it isn't monsters, then it must be what?" She asked.

"Gods," I guessed. The mythical world was composed of mainly monsters and gods. And demigods like myself, but we tended to ignore mortals, too. I tried to use my sword on a mortal once: big mistake.

"Good. The god is obviously doing this in New York to draw us out, so he must have a bone to pick with one of us here at camp. Now who here has the most immortal enemies?"

Now I saw where she was going with this. "That would be me," I said glumly.

"Right again," Annabeth said, smiling sympathetically at me. "You have offended at least half of the gods at some point, so it really could be almost any one of them."

"Not true!" I said, getting defensive again. "The gods love me!"

Chiron seemed to be suppressing a smile. "Be that as it may, there is still a group of mortals who need our help. Seeing as the god is most likely trying to taunt you, we have decided that the best course of action is to send you in to correct your mistakes."

I realized that I wasn't going to change anyone's mind. "So I take it that I don't have any say in the matter, right?" I asked dejectedly.

Chiron nodded. "That is correct."

Clarisse had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the entire conversation. Not that I minded.

Now she cleared her throat and took a step forward, indicating that she wanted to speak. "I'll go with you to help stop the god, Jackson."

I was surprised. "Why would you want to help me?" I asked.

Clarisse looked uncomfortable. "I have a hunch that I would want to be there when you face this particular god. If it is who I think it is."

I tried to press her for more information, but she refused to say anything beyond that. I turned to Annabeth for support.

"Do have any idea who she's talking about?"

Annabeth laughed. "Of course I have ideas, but I don't know if any of them are right. Besides, you should be able to figure this out better than I should. Who have you offended?"

I didn't even bother to answer. The list went on and on. "Okay, but if you won't tell me who it is, will you at least come with me?"

"Of course I will. After all, if you try to make amends with the god, you're going to need me there. You are terrible at apologizing."

"Good," I said. I felt a little bit better. This could hardly go wrong, now that I had Annabeth and Clarisse with me.

Chiron tapped me on the shoulder. "You better leave now. I doubt that the god will harm the mortals, but immortals are fickle. I cannot say what they will and will not do."

I nodded. "You're right. So, is Argus going to drive us into the city?"

Chiron had a mischievous look in his eyes that I had rarely seen before. "No, Argus is not here. You will drive." He tossed me the keys to the van.

"Drive carefully," he warned. "That van in camp property. Don't crash it."

"I won't," I promised him. I loved driving, and I was pretty good at it if I do say so myself.

Twenty minutes later, we were on our way to Central Park. Annabeth had elected to sit in the back because she felt that she would get too nervous if she sat up front with me, so Clarisse was riding shotgun next to me.

I tried to initiate conversation. "So, are you ready to tell me who you think the god is yet?" I asked casually.

Clarisse didn't even bother to respond. "Just keep your eyes on the road and the talking to a minimum," she said.

I heard Annabeth pipe up from the back. "What? Percy, are you taking your eyes off of the road? That is definitely not safe."

I held up a hand to slow her down. "No, I promise I'm paying attention. No need to wor-"

She cut me off. "Two hands on the wheel, Seaweed Brain!"

I put my hand back down and decided to let it go, even though there were no cars in sight. We rode in silence for the rest of the time, but I wasn't eager to try and start conversation again.

We finally pulled into Central Park. I didn't see anything strange happening, but it was a big park. We all climbed out of the van and almost immediately heard a scream.

"There," Clarisse pointed to a clump of trees that hid a section of the park from view. We raced towards the source of the noise and drew our weapons.

Riptide expanded into three feet of softly glowing Celestial bronze when I uncapped it. The grip was molded perfectly to my hand. At this point, it almost felt like an extension of my hand rather than a weapon.

All three of us burst through the trees at about the same time. What we saw stopped us in our track. There was a clearing surrounded by a ring of trees to deep to see through. In the middle of the clearing, there was a terrified group of humans. But none of that was what had made us pause.

There was a group of monsters surrounding the humans. It was a ring of Laistrygonian giants, and they all looked hungry. They appeared to have abandoned making any attempt to pass as humans, seeing as they were much taller than normal.

I have no idea what the humans were seeing, but based on their expressions, I imagine that it was terrifying for them too.

I took a step forward towards the Laistrygonians, but Clarisse held me back.

"Wait," she said. Something in her tone told me instinctively to listen to her.

Clarisse reached on the ground and picked up a small rock. She threw it directly at the giant closest to us. Annabeth and I braced myself for the giant to turn on us, but Clarisse remained at ease.

The rock passed right through the Laistrygonian as if it wasn't even there. Almost as if it was some sort of illusion.

Both Annabeth and myself looked up in surprise. "Just as I thought," said Clarisse grimly. She raised her voice so everyone could hear her.

"Show yourself!"

For a second nothing happened. Then, a large figure stepped out of the trees on the opposite side of the clearing.

I gasped. I hadn't expected to see him.

"Deimos." Clarisse said.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, once again, sorry for the wait. I actually have a good excuse this time though; I was sick for two days and spent the rest making up the schoolwork that I missed. This is the first real right scene, though, and also the longest chapter yet, so hopefully it makes up for it. **

**Thank you to everyone who had reviewed this story so far. **

**Read, review, enjoy. **

Clarisse and I had met Deimos and his brother, Phobos, a while back. They were both minor gods and sons of Ares, technically making them Clarisse's brothers.

I remembered what Clarisse had told me about them last time.

"_They're minor gods. Phobos is fear. Deimos is terror."_

"_What's the difference?"_

"_Deimos is bigger and uglier, I guess. He's good at freaking out entire crowds. Phobos is more, like, personal. He can get inside your head."_

It wasn't easy to beat them last time. Phobos had made sure to promise me that there would be a next time, but I didn't see him anywhere.

"Deimos," I said, gritting my teeth. "Where's your brother?"

Deimos sneered at me. "Don't worry about him. You should be more concerned with yourself!"

He snapped his finger and a drakon slithered out from the trees. Unlike the Laistrygonian giants, this drakon was most definitely real.

Relatively speaking, this drakon was tiny. It was only about the size of a school bus. I'd fought monsters much bigger than this one, but drakons are always dangerous.

This one was a poisonous shade of green. Like most drakons, its eyes shone yellow like spotlights, constantly searching out its next target. It reared its head and spat at a tree close to it.

Of course, drakons have to be poisonous. The trunk of the tree began dissolving and steaming. By this point, the humans were absolutely terrified. I don't know what they were seeing, but I imagine that it was something like the world's largest Komodo dragon on the loose.

We had to get the mortals out of there before they got hurt.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "I'll take care of the mortals! You and Clarisse take the drakon!"

I nodded at her and ran towards the ancient monster with Clarisse close behind. I would never have told her this, but Clarisse is one of the first people that I would have picked to help me fight a drakon. The one she had killed in the war against Kronos was much bigger than this one, so it should be easier for her.

The drakon roared at us and spat poison in our direction. I ducked under the poison and kept running, but I veered off to the side so I wasn't charging at it head-on. I checked back to make sure that Clarisse hadn't been hit by the poison, but I shouldn't have been worried.

Clarisse was fine, running faster than I was. She slung her extra spear off of her shoulder and got poised to throw it. We both knew that one of the best places to hit a drakon was in the eye, so I assumed that's where she was aiming.

She released the spear. It headed in a beautiful arc straight toward the monster's left eye. I began to mentally celebrate on being able to wound the drakon so quickly. Before I could begin to congratulate us, however, the monster moved faster than I would have thought possible.

In the blink of an eye, it lifted its head up and caught the spear in its mouth, snapping it two. Unfortunately, Clarisse's extra spear wasn't electric. If it was, the drakon would have been zapped with thousands of volts of electricity, hopefully frying it to a crisp.

By the time the spear reached the drakon, I was level with its head, only off to the monster's right. After it caught the spear, it whipped its head around to face me and snapped, trying to crush me as easily as the spear.

I lunged forward and avoided the long white teeth chasing me. I leapt up on the monster's leg and my momentum carried me forward, up the side of the drakon. Its scales were slippery, but once I was on its back I didn't need to worry about falling off.

I ran towards the head of the monster. I knew from experience that even Riptide couldn't penetrate the drakon's thick green scales, but it didn't have anything stopping me from attacking its eyes.

While I was approaching the head, Clarisse was keeping it busy with her electric spear. Actually, her third electric spear, since her first two had broken.

She was jabbing the monster whenever she could, which was whenever she wasn't avoiding its poison, teeth, or powerful legs, which it used to try and knock her out of the way.

Every time she hit it, a small electric shock was sent out. The drakon's scales protected it from the worst of the damage, but it still had to be annoying.

At that point, I was on the neck of the drakon, looking for an opportunity to take out the monster's eyes. Suddenly it stopped moving and thrashing around. This was the perfect time. I lifted my sword high into the air, ready to thrust it into the drakon.

Then the drakon seemed to shiver. A rippled coursed through its body, caused the green scales to shimmer and glint in the afternoon sunlight. I was thrown off of the monster when the rippled made the drakon arch its back.

I landed nearly fifteen feet away from the drakon and sat there, dazed. I shook my head to clear it and stood up. What I saw then scared me.

The drakon was gazing straight into Clarisse's eyes. Its yellow beams cast by the iris seemed to focus directly on Clarisse. Many people know that a drakon's glare can paralyze almost anything, and now I was experiencing this firsthand.

Clarisse was frozen. The expression on her face was blank and emotionless. Despite her situation, she did not look afraid. I still don't know if that was because she was being stubborn, or simply because the stare left her unable to be scared.

She was not moving. The monster was slowly advancing towards her. I swear he was grinning, as if he knew that he was about to have his next meal.

"Run!" I yelled at Clarisse. "Run!"

She couldn't move. I was too far away to do anything, but I had to try. I began to sprint, faster than I ever had before. Despite how fast I was going, I wasn't going to make.

Then Clarisse jerked to one side and fell to the ground, out of range of the drakon. I was surprised. No one was supposed to be able to break free of the drakon's glare.

Then, a New York Yankees cap flew out of nowhere and landed on the ground. At the same time, a girl's body with long blonde hair appeared on the ground. Annabeth!

She must have snuck back into the clearing using her invisibility hat and knocked Clarisse out of the way of the drakon. Unfortunately, the hat had been knocked off once she hit the ground. Now the monster knew where both of them were.

The drakon roared and spat at the two bodies tangled together on the ground in front of it. It missed, but barely. The grass in front of the girls began to hiss and steam as it dissolved.

I kept running towards them, speeding by the drakon before it could snap at me. I reached them and began to help them both to their feet.

Now it was three on one. The odds were a little bit better. Silently, we devised a way to attack the drakon. We all knew each other well enough that the plan didn't have to be spoken.

I went around front to face the drakon head-on. Normally, this is not a smart idea, but I was being backed up by two other strong fighters.

Clarisse went to the attack the drakon from behind. While I had the most dangerous job, her's wasn't much better. She had to deal with the powerful tail and watch out for the drakon's legs.

Annabeth was doing what she did best: finding a weak spot in a seemingly impenetrable monster. She had out her Yankees cap back on and was trying to get near the monster' neck. With her smaller knife, she would be able to slip between scales much easier than a sword or spear.

I approached the monster slowly, carefully looking out for signs that it was about to attack. While Clarisse and Annabeth were circling around the drakon, I slashed at it with my sword.

It didn't even bother to avoid the attack. Even as strong as Riptide was, it just glanced off of the scales on the monster's face. The drakon snapped at me with its long, white teeth. I jumped backwards and slashed at it again, but to no avail.

I saw Clarisse jabbing at the drakon with her spear, but its tail seemed to have a mind of its own. She was busy trying to avoid being crushed. Any damage that she was causing the drakon didn't seem to be lasting.

I couldn't see Annabeth for obvious reasons, but I knew that she was out there, looking for a weak spot in the monster's scales.

The drakon roared at me and snapped again. Once again, I jumped backwards. This time, however, I wasn't so lucky. I twisted my ankle as I landed and fell over. In a flash, the drakon had me pinned down with its front leg.

I struggled to get up, but there was nothing I could do. The sheer weight of the monster was crushing me. The drakon leaned its face down close to mine and roared, showing me its fangs.

I had one, last, desperate attempt. Riptide was still in my right hand. I lifted the Celestial bronze blade up in the air, struggling against the drakon's leg that was holding me back.

With all my strength, I flung the sword into the open mouth of the roaring drakon. It pierced the skin on the inside of the monsters mouth, causing it to pause mid-roar. The wound wasn't enough to kill the drakon, but it was enough to hurt.

Suddenly, the drakon began to roar again. However, this was not a roar of triumph. It was a roar of pain, perhaps caused by the wound I had inflicted with Riptide. But that wouldn't make any sense; the cut I gave it shouldn't have hurt this bad.

I heard a voice call out my name. "Percy!"

The drakon froze. It began to dissolve slowly. The hollow shell of scales that remained fell on top of me.

"Percy!" The same voice called. Annabeth ran around the side of the shell and rushed to my side. With her help, I lifted the shell of the drakon that had fallen on top of me. It toppled to the side and I stood up shakily.

Annabeth quickly hugged me. "I didn't see you after I stabbed the drakon! I thought that it had eaten you!"

I managed an uneasy smile. She must have used her knife to stab and kill the drakon. "It would take more than some little drakon to get rid of me." I didn't want to let her know how close I had become to the drakon's lunch.

She laughed and hugged me again. Clarisse walked around behind us from the other side of the drakon shell.

"Come on, lovers. We have to work to do."

I was confused. "Like what? We already killed the drakon."

Clarisse shouldered her electric spear.

"We're going to find Deimos."


End file.
